Chapter 11: A Brief Moment

When the darkness of the portal finally cleared, I could see a comfortable lounge with several couches and coffee tables. It reminded me of an office building lobby, with abandoned mugs on glass coasters that were no longer steaming. The lounge seemed empty, as Zexion pressed me forward to step out of the portal.

"The meeting will start shortly. I'll come back to escort you, once you've finished conversing with your friends. But please don't be late. It would be terribly embarrassing for not only you, but for me as well." Zexion nodded over to the couches.

"Your friends should be coming this way in a moment." And with that, he returned back to the portal.

I watched the portal disappear, and turned back towards the lounge. There was a full scale window of the cityscape that replaced a window. I walked over to the window, pressing my hand to it, looking down through the glass. It was dark, and tranquil, with skyscrapers and flickering neon signs that lined the paved and unoccupied streets.

Looking up, I could see what controlled everyone's destiny; Kingdom Hearts.

The colossal, sacrosanct orb, levitated in the sky had a vital influence on all of us. When a heartless was slayed, the stolen heart would find its way back to Kingdom Hearts. The organization, all hoped to recover their heart from Kingdom Hearts. With this, they could become whole, and be reunited with their other half.

They were nobodies.

With their heart, they would become a somebody.

Whole again.

"Kairi?"

I perked my head up from these thoughts and turned around, to see two other cloaked figures.

"Kairi is that you?" One of them lifted their hood from their head, the other following suit.

My blonde friend met me with a curious, hoping expression, blue eyes almost pleading for it to be me.

"Roxas?" I faced him with full excited focus, and looked over to the other, my raven-haired friend. "Xion?"

"Oh Kingdom Hearts it's you Kairi!" Xion lunged forward, hugging me close.

I embraced her, holding on, fearing that she would be snatched away from me. Roxas joined us in the embrace, silence filling the space that separation has torn into us.

"We thought you were dead." Xion muffled bluntly into my shoulder.

The three of us stepped back from each other, as I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Dead? Oh Kingdom Hearts no…" I faced her, shaking my head.

"What happened to everyone else?" Roxas immediately questioned in a hushed whisper.

Oh, that's right. We had to keep most of this stuff secret. Who knows who could be listening in on us…

"Namine is fine," I whispered in response, knowing that that was his primary concern. "Sora is in Twilight Town, resting and at the moment unharmed-"

"What about Riku?" Xion spat out desperately. Roxas shot her a glance, disapproving her changed level of volume.

"Sorry," Xion whispered apologetically. "What about Riku?"

"I… I don't know where he is…" I answered truthfully.

Xion's face dropped, worry splotched over her face. I couldn't have imagined how she must have felt, with her significant other missing in action.

"No idea?" she pleaded.

I shook my head.

"Riku's strong. He can take care of himself." Roxas assured Xion. She nodded, looking down at her boots.

"How did you get here anyways?" Roxas asked, dropping out of his whisper.

I met him with self-disappointment, biting my lip in shame before I answered.

"They captured me. I tried running, but they were too strong. So I guess I'm stuck here, like you two."

"Great…" Roxas trailed off, looking out the window. "I guess the three of us are going to have to figure out some way to bust us out of this place. Meanwhile, you shouldn't have to worry," he turned back to face me. "Xion and I know the place pretty well, so if you need help, holler."

"Is there any trouble I should expect?"

Roxas seemed to snort a bit at that. "Trouble would be an understatement." He leaned against the window, crossing his arms.

"There a couple of sketchy members here. If they try anything, I want you to come to me. Okay?"

"Try anything? Like what?" I asked curiously.

"Doesn't matter. If they try anything, you'll come to me, right?"

"Yeah, I will."

Roxas nodded. "Good." He turned back to look outside the window, sighing.

"Did anyone say anything? I mean, what happened after Xion and I got knocked out?"

"It's a long story. It would probably be best for me to tell you some other time, when we actually have time…" I looked over to him, and suddenly remembered the urgency of the situation.

"But there's something that Namine wanted me to tell you," I dropped back into a whisper. "And it's really important-"

"It's time to go to the meeting." Zexion's voice pierced through my whisper, and I immediately turned around to face the direction of his voice. How long had he been there? Oh no…

"Come, follow me." He nodded towards a portal he was conjuring.

It didn't seem like he had heard anything…

Roxas sighed, and walked towards the portal, stepping inside, Xion following.

I glanced back out to the cityscape once more, before heading in the direction.

"Hurry up, princess," Zexion called. "Being punctual is quite vital in the Organization."

I cursed at myself for postponing the most important thing that I had to tell Roxas as I stepped inside the portal. He had to know that we had to be searching for Sora's memories…and that quest would be the only way we would be able to get out of here. The organization had no idea about Sora's memories, and if things worked in our favor, they never would.